Patriots may be looking up to Bills for a long time

By Jack Sherman, Sports Writer | September 15, 2022

The Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams playing in Thursday’s game, where the Buffalo Bills won. Illustration by Bianca Oppedisano / Mass Media Staff

Sibling rivalries can be very tough—especially for the younger or smaller sibling. The older brother always seems to get the upper hand, beating you in sports, overpowering the smaller sibling during horseplay and so on. But, sometimes, if the younger brother eats his veggies and has good genetics, he can grow up to get the better of his brother. That is especially the case with the Buffalo Bills, regarding their sibling rivalry with the New England Patriots. For nearly two decades, the Patriots got the better of the Bills time and time and time again. From their first championship season in 2001, to Tom Brady’s final year in New England in 2019, the Patriots put up a record of 34–4 against the Bills (1). Yes, 34–4! A .894 winning percentage! But, following Brady’s departure after the 2019 season, things began to change.
In 2018, the Bills drafted quarterback Josh Allen out of the University of Wyoming. Allen had mixed reports as a prospect coming out of college; NFL scouts liked his arm strength but questioned his accuracy in the passing game (2). His first two years in the league, he did not do much to assuage these concerns. In his first two seasons in the league, Allen completed less than 60 percent of his passes, threw 30 touchdowns to 21 interceptions, and had a rather mediocre passer rating of 78.2 (3). However, in the 2020 offseason, the Bills made a splash move, trading for star wideout Stefon Diggs from Minnesota (4).
In the 2020 season, Allen exploded to superstardom, completing 69.2 percent of his passes for 4,544 yards and 37 touchdowns, and finished second behind Aaron Rodgers in the Associated Press’s NFL MVP voting (5). Allen led the Bills to the AFC championship game, their first since 1993, but Buffalo would fall to the Kansas City Chiefs on the road. (6)
In 2021, Allen again had a fine year, but after a one-year reset where they missed the playoffs, the Patriots were back in contention to challenge the Bills. In a Week 13 Monday Night matchup, where both teams entered with records of 7–4, the Patriots beat the Bills 14–10 in a game that was thrown into chaos by the wild weather of a Lake Erie-induced winter windstorm (7). But a few weeks later, in Foxborough, the Bills would beat the Pats by a score of 33–21, with Allen throwing for 314 yards and three touchdowns (8). The two teams would meet one final time in the Wild Card round, with the Bills demolishing the Patriots by a score of 47–17, scoring touchdowns on seven straight drives (9).
The Bills would again lose a heartbreaking playoff game in Kansas City, this time in the divisional round, letting the Chiefs kick a game-tying field goal as time in regulation expired and would give up the game-winning touchdown in overtime (10). However, the Bills licked their wounds and tried to win their first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. To do this, they went out and signed veteran superstar edge rusher Von Miller (11)—fresh off helping another team, the Los Angeles Rams, win the Super Bowl. In the 2022 NFL kickoff game, the full force of the Bills was on display. Allen hooked up with his receivers for 296 yards and three touchdowns, including a 50-yard strike to Diggs, while Miller and the Bills defense hounded Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, sacking him seven times and forcing three interceptions, in a dominant 31–10 victory (12). With the Patriots already 0–1 to start the 2022 season, following a week one loss to Miami (13), it seems like a pretty safe bet to assume they won’t catch the Bills anytime soon.

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Jack Sherman, Sports Writer

Bianca Oppedisano, Illustrator

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Patriots may be looking up to Bills for a long time

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